i've been reading a few articles on the x prize now, but no where have a seen a reference to star trek.

i seem to recall this star trek movie where the crew intervened to help the 1st pioneer to reach space in a manned craft, which caught the attention of some passing aliens and opened the gateway to contact with other intelligent beings. i recall there was this special engine involved ...

anyone help? and why has no media article highlighted this idea? did this fictionous event inspire the x-prize as well??

What you are thinking of is “warp or warp core engine ” even thou some scientist are playing with the concept and theories to see if they can come up with some thing it is still a fictional theory from a show.
The X-prize is dealing with the here and now not what could be. The X-prize uses what is possible with the technology we have already developed or can be developed on the cheap. If any thing can be developed from this fictional theory it will still be a long way off and require a lot of R&D that means $$$money$$$ and a lot of it

I believe that curious_me was reffering to the greatest Star Trek movie of all time : Star Trek Frist Contact. Based in the year 2064 if I remember correctly. Great science fiction. I strongly doubt that we will have anything remotely similar to the warp ship used in First Contact in only sixty years.

Then again...who knew in the 40s that only sixty years from then we would have computers, cell phones, have landed a man on the Moon, and have a couple dozen teams compeating for an "X prize"?

There is nothing more unpredictable then the future.
(Hey...that would make a nice signature...)

_________________"When traveling through life, remember to keep your eye on the donut and not the hole." ~anon

as the other dude said warp drives are a far (very far) way away. However if we are referring to "star-trek" , to be more specific i think you are referring to the movie called "star trek : first contact" whereby a Dr Zephrem Cochrane invents warp drive there are some aspects to consider:

for one ,star - trek have got a few ideas wrong, warp drives are theoretically possible, i tried to find the link from the scientific journal "american scientist" but i think it is lost howver here is another link from NASA:

in star trek anitmatter powers the enterprises warp engine, however in real life physics this is impossible. A substance known as exotic matter would be needed to power a craft that creates a warp bubble. From what we know on present day physics goign faster then the speed of light is impossible, this is because the body (of matter) has a velocity. Regarding warp drives the "loop hole" is that if space and time (thereby the body or spacecraft does not have a velocity) can be manuipulated by creating a warp bubble in front of the body (or space ship) by using exotic matter the craft would be "pulled" forward by the warp in space and time. I really dont know the nitty gritty info on how this works. There is one problem howver , we need to find exotic matter first. Exotic matter is not the same as antimatter , and nobody even knows if it exists, the only hope that exists regarding this field however is that scientists recently discovered that the universe is made up of 76 % dark energy ( 4 % being normal,everyday matter). The theorys regarding antimatter ect are two new, however and should be discarded until we know more about the physics of our universe. so as you can see warp drive technology is incredibly far off, if it is possible at all.

secondly the antimatter used in star-trek is becoing more scientific fact then scientific fiction with every single day that passes. every single day we learn more about how it works ect and our level of technology has progressed so far that we are no even able to produce anti-hyrdogen.
Scientist are predecting that anti matter is going to change the way we go about our business in 50 years time, just as the invention of the LASER did.
NASA even has a team of scientists dedicated to designing an engine for anitmatter that can be created after we eventually find out how to efficiently store the stuff

These sites realy are fascinating reading if you have the time and proper mindset. There are even discussions on things like 'what is nothing,' 'tunnelling' and the like. It seems as if the speed of likght (c) is not quite the concrete wall previously thought!

Future Tech is great and all,but with X-prize, it's missing the point. The X-prize is about showing that private enterprise can open space up to the public better than the government (which,IMO, Star Trek represents, especially TNG).

Basically,the Star Wars universe has captailism and free will as its wordview.
Basically,the Star Trek unverse has socialism and control as its worldview.

In the Star Wars universe,you could own a starship.
In the Star Trek universe,you usually have to book passage on a pubic/goverment-owned and operated starship.

Good points. Star Trek is much less socially thought provoking than SW. Neither realy seems to be to my liking... ST poses the Federation as a pseudo-military scientific organization. Not completely socialistic but close. SW is more like the wild-west of space. If you can make a buck doing something, cool, you can afford a ship. If you can't, then you will probably live out a rather mundane life as a fur trader or dust farmer, or a Dark Side minion.

i like the star trek government for the emphasis they put on exploration and their socialistic aspect, but star wars is much cooler and would be a more interesting 'place' to live in. probably the best would be a cross between the two.

For socialism to work, all the people involved have to have the same goal. The nature of people as individuals prevents this from happening. Therfore, for socialism to work, the style of thinking with the largets number of people must violently remove or subdue the individuals who disagree. By removing the individualism factor, socialism can progress forward. However, as it turns out, when people aren't allowed to be individuals and have their own creative and unique identity, progress comes to a halt and humanity stagnates.

Therefore, in my opinion, Star Trek is a giant contradiction. I too am attracted to the spirit of exploration put forth in Star Trek, and I admire the community spirit and commitment to rational dialogue as opposed to bickering and political infighting. However, I fear and disagree with the sentiment that we must institute collectivism in order for people to get along and make productive acheivements.

If 200 years of capitalism in America has shown us anything, it is that individualism breeds fantastic creativity, and that corrupt individuals will always use the fruits of their creativity to harm and abuse other individuals. The problem, clearly, is corruption, not individualism. We must focus on restraining corruption and mal-ethics in order for a Star Trekian universe to manifest itself. Stamping out individualism will only lead to a bland, stagnant society in which everyone is taken care of but no one is happy.

the first reference to Star Trek is the Gene Roddenberries' son because he is a member of the XPRIZE foundation (if I'm right).

The second reference to Star Trek is that the flights and the spacecrafts are private - in Star Trek private space flights are the Normality.

The third reference are private technological research and development done by the XPRIZE teams - these activities in principle a reference to the Zephraim Cochrane's private activity in the episode you've mentioned

And the fourth reference: Cochrane's goals are similar to the goals of the XPRIZE Foundation.

I'm surprised - socialism and control the world view of Star Trek? In The Next Generation as well as in Voyager there is Free Choice as well as the so-called capitalism: Ferengi and especially Quark, Neelix is a free trader and many others too, Captains Sisko's father has a restaurant and In The Original Series there are entrepreneurs too.

Only the requirement of money is removed but that's not socialism - after Western Rome has fallen there was trade without money in that territories for decades or centuries.

Starfleet is a governmental institution with scientific orders - for this reason within Starfleet the structures necessarily are non-capitalistic.

From my point the world view of Star Trek is not far from the normal world vie known in our reality.

In Star Trek there is a stable government with the power to rule - in Star Wars there is rebellion and revolution against absolutism and autocracy with the goal of democracy I would say.